| Jo Edwards | |
| Nationality: | New Zealander |
| Birth Date: | 5 February 1970 |
| Birth Place: | Clatterbridge, England |
Joanna Edwards (born 5 February 1970) is a New Zealand international lawn bowls competitor. She has won two world titles and three Commonwealth Games gold medals.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games she won a gold medal along with Sharon Sims in the women's pairs event.[1] She has twice won the gold medal at the World Outdoor Bowls Championships in the pairs events: in 2004 with Sharon Sims; and in 2008 with Val Smith.
In 2014 she won a second Commonwealth Games gold medal after winning the women's singles in Glasgow.
In 2016, she won a bronze medal at the 2016 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Christchurch in the singles and a silver medal with Angela Boyd in the pairs.[2]
She was selected as part of the New Zealand team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Queensland,[3] where she claimed a gold medal in the Singles.
In 2020 she was selected for the 2020 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Australia.[4]
In addition to World Bowls and Commonwealth Games success she has won five gold medals and (nine medals in total) at the Asia Pacific Bowls Championships[5] and excelled at the 2015 APL (Australian Premier League), she was the only woman competing in the eight-team tournament featuring 24 of the world's top players and played alongside her countrymen Ali Forsyth and Shannon McIlroy to win the title at Club Pine Rivers.[6]
Edwards has won six World Cup Singles titles (a women's record) with the latest success being in 2019. Previous wins were in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2017.[7]
In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours, Edwards was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to lawn bowls.[8]